Sunday, November 29, 2009

DUBAI CRISIS: WHAT AILS DUBAI? AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

In order to transform its economy as a major tourist and financial hub, Dubai borrowed US$80bn. However, it suffered a massive property slump in last year’s credit crisis. Now, it is not able to repay its liabilities, and asking borrowers to postpone repayments. There were 53 lakh Indians in the Gulf, of which 31% were in the UAE, mostly employed by construction sector for Dubai’s real estate boom. The Gulf region accounts for over half the total inward remittances worth over USD 25 billion annually from expatriate Indians, out of which 10% of overall remittances to India could be from construction workers. If Dubai were to default, there would be repercussion in other parts of world, where banking would take a hit from lending to Dubai. Though the overall size of the liabilities are not very big compared to US banking problems, this could be a taken as an excuse for the markets to correct at lower levels.